UN report urges States to stop criminalizing drug users

A report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) calls for a shift from punitive measures to tackle the global drug problem to policies based on human rights and public health, finding that the disproportionate use of criminal sanctions is detrimental.

The report urges states to developing effective drug policies, In particular, we are considering the decriminalization of drug possession for personal use.

«If designed and implemented effectively, decriminalization can be a powerful instrument for ensuring the protection of the rights of people who use drugs,» says the report.

«The laws, policies and practices implemented to combat drug use must not have the effect of exacerbating human suffering. The drug problem remains a serious concern, but treating drug users as criminals is not the solution», said Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

«States should move away from the current dominant focus on prohibition, repression and punishment, and instead adopt laws, policies and practices rooted in human rights and aimed at harm reduction.».

The report by the UN Human Rights Office, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, finds that the disproportionate use of criminal sanctions discourages drug users from seeking treatment, and fuels stigmatization and social exclusion.

According to the latest available statistics from World Drug Report 2023, people who use drugs are disproportionately affected by blood-borne viruses, nearly 660,000 people die each year from drug-related causes, and 10 % of all new HIV infections worldwide in 2021 were among people who inject drugs.

The adverse effects of these policies are profound and far-reaching, according to the report. The militarization of law enforcement agencies as part of the «war on drugs» contributes to serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions. The disproportionate use of criminal sanctions contributes significantly to prison overcrowding.

The report points out that the effects of these policies are most severe for people of African descent, women, indigenous peoples and young people from poor backgrounds.

«Current drug policies have the greatest impact on the poorest and most vulnerable people,» Turk points out.

The use of the death penalty for drug-related convictions has also increased worldwide, in contravention of international human rights standards. The number of people executed for drug-related offenses more than doubled in 2022 compared to 2021, accounting for 37 % of all executions recorded worldwide, the report states.

«The current overemphasis on coercion and control in the fight against drugs is driving an increase in human rights violations despite mounting evidence that decades of criminalization and the so-called war on drugs have neither protected people's well-being nor deterred drug-related crime,» said Mr. Türk.

The report shows that a growing number of countries in all regions are adopting policies and practices that decriminalize drug use as a public health and human rights issue, and apply evidence-based, gender-sensitive and harm-reduction approaches.

The High Commissioner called on States to capitalize on this positive trend.

A group of UN representatives and human rights experts had already called for an end to the «global war on drugs».» last June.